


roll with the punches

by Anonymous



Series: invisible string [2]
Category: Narcos (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Soulbonds, a plot? i don't know that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-13
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-13 17:41:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29405676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: If Murphy is angry with him, he is doing a damn good job at hiding it. His face betrays nothing, as he sits opposite Javi, near the airport bar. Steve sucks at poker, though, because his face is too expressive. And Javi would know if he were truly angry, even if Steve blocked out his side of the bond.It doesn't make things easier; Javi’s choices landed them here and, before, it was only Javi who had to deal with the consequences of his actions. That is no longer true, of course, and he’s managed to drag Steve into all of this.Which is why Steve coming to the airport to see him off does not touch him quite as much as it should. But there's no point in wondering about the what-ifs now. Javi made his choices; he has to live with them now.He just wishes Steve didn’t also have to live with them.
Relationships: Steve Murphy/Javier Peña
Series: invisible string [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2160177
Kudos: 20
Collections: Anonymous





	roll with the punches

**Author's Note:**

> ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> Will I ever get to how they found out they were soulmates. Who actually knows.

If Murphy is angry with him, he is doing a damn good job at hiding it. His face betrays nothing, as he sits opposite Javi, near the airport bar. Steve sucks at poker, though, because his face is too expressive. And Javi would know if he were truly angry, even if Steve blocked out his side of the bond.

It doesn't make things easier; Javi’s choices landed them here and, before, it was only Javi who had to deal with the consequences of his actions. That is no longer true, of course, and he’s managed to drag Steve into all of this. 

Which is why Steve coming to the airport to see him off does not touch him quite as much as it should. But there's no point in wondering about the what-ifs now. Javi made his choices; he has to live with them now. 

He just wishes Steve didn’t also have to live with them.

There’s a comfortable silence between them, two beers in the middle, too. Javi doesn’t really know what he would say, even if he _did_ know what he wanted to say. How would he even say it, you know? It’s a little habit of theirs, now, to leave many things unsaid.

“It’ll be hard,” Javi starts, because he guesses he should try. “It could be a long time before you catch him. And I could, you know –” he gestures vaguely at the air between them. Steve will know that he means he doesn’t know if he’ll have a job after the hearings in DC. “It doesn’t take a genius to figure out which long-term DEA agent was linked to Los Pepes death squad.”

“Well, the board of professional conduct has never been accused of being geniuses, so.” Steve says, very certain in his words, like what Javi did is no big deal. 

“Yeah, who reads the Miami Herald anyway, right?” Steve is better at seeing the bright side of things than him. Balance, and all that stuff they tell you about soulmates. If Javi is quietly resigned at facing the consequences of his actions, Steve is not. “It’s going to be hard, still.”

He’s about to add that he should lay low, for a while. No contact unless strictly necessary, to avoid Steve getting more entangled into this than he already is. But then, Steve says, “There's this little invention called phones, you know,” Steve continues, “Useful things.”

Javi does chuckle at that. “I’ve heard of them,” he says. He stares at his beer but can feel Steve’s gaze on him. Javi puts down his cigarette, and looks at Steve. “Listen. I meant what I said. Anyone starts asking questions, you just tell them what they want to hear, okay? It was always on me.”

“Fuck you, Javi,” Steve replies, without missing a beat, “And anybody who comes around asking,” he continues, “It’s not like we’re both completely clean, anyway.”

“Imagine the headlines,” Javi says, not able to help himself. Steve laughs at that. “Just add it to the long list of my infractions.”

Steve shrugs. There’s silence again, and then, when Steve is about to speak up, Javi’s flight is announced.

“Well,” Javi says, after getting up and gathering what’s left of his things. “See you when I see you.” If he sees Steve again, that is.

Steve shakes his head, probably has an idea of the hidden meaning of Javi’s words because of the bond. But he opens up his arms at the same time Javi does, and they embrace each other.

He will never get used to it. Touching his soulmate. It’s an experience that no book on soulbonds can accurately describe. For a moment, the world is quiet and there’s just the two of them, the certainty of their bond. No inquiries, no secrets, no damage done. There’s Steve as a temporary gravitational center of Javi’s universe, and nothing else.

If things were that easy, maybe they would be… well. Like Javi said, no point in crying over spilled milk.

“There’ll be time,” Steve says, probably sensing Javi’s emotions and taking a guess about what brought them about, the little traitor.

“You’re a nosy bastard,” Javi says, when they break apart.

“Pot, kettle,” Steve says. “Take care, Javi.”

For a moment, Javi thinks about leaning in. He knows Steve wouldn’t turn his face the other way.

But he doesn’t. There’ll be time. 

He feels Steve’s gaze every step of the way.

-

The flight to DC is quiet, and calm. The only weird thing is when he’s high up in the air and he feels his connection to Steve growing weaker and weaker. By the time he gets to DC, it’ll be but a whisper; there, but not strongly so. It’s normal, after all. The longer the distance, the weaker a soulbond. Part of the identification mechanism. A very annoying part.

And it makes Javi feel ridiculous.

Because Javi never thought he would miss Murphy’s bastard face – and Christ, he’s not even been gone for a day –, but then again, he also hadn’t ever thought that he would find his soulmate the way he did.

One part of him is a bit glad to be out of the wolf’s mouth. The other was left behind in Colombia. It’s a cheesy thought, but it rings true nonetheless. So far apart, he can barely feel Murphy. He’s heard stories from people who lost their soulmates and still felt a ghost bond, and he wonders if this is what it would feel like; there, but so faint, it’s almost like it’s not there anymore.

But that is not a nice line of thought to follow, so Javi leaves it alone. What good would it do, after all, to imagine the worst happening, when it very well could become a reality?

So he tries to blank his mind as much as possible, and falls asleep to the very last feeling of the bond. When he wakes up and touches down, it’s barely there, hanging by a very weak thread, if Javi had to guess. It’s weird, now that he’s gotten used to that connection to Steve. He had managed just fine before they met, but after spending so long next to each other, basically in each other’s heads, well, of course he’s going to have to get used to not having Steve _there._ Stupid soulbonds.

He wonders if Steve feels the same. If he feels ridiculous for doing so, too. He unconsciously tries to get a feel for Steve’s emotions through the bond, but it really is so faint he can barely tell it’s still there. That only serves to sour his mood even more. As if he needed any more reasons to be annoyed. 

Javi breathes in DC. Very different from Medellín. What kind of different it is – good or bad – yet to be seen. By now he’s only hoping that Steve stays clear of the mess he’s gotten himself into. 

-

Javi doesn’t contact Steve for a week. In his defense, he was worried about possibly losing his job, and Steve could have also called, too. 

But Javi doesn’t feel like making it into a thing, and Steve doesn't seem to want that, either, because when he picks up, he just asks, “So?”

“Well, I’m not out of a job,” Javi says, “They keep giving me more chances, and I’ll do it someday.” 

Steve chuckles. Javi can see him shaking his head in his mind. Imagines that’s what Steve did, on the other side of the phone. “It’d do you some good,” Steve says, but there’s obviously no heat to his words. “So what’s next for you?”

Javi hesitates on telling him. But Steve, being Steve, will surely visit him in Texas, anyway, and _then_ find out Javi lied, and then that _will_ be a Thing. So he decides to get the cat out of the bag. Roll with the punches and all that. “I’m going back home for a bit,” he says, “Cali after that.” 

Steve is silent for a bit. It’s genuinely unsettling that Javi can’t gauge what he’s truly feeling through the bond, if his silence is a good thing. “Congrats?” he offers. Javi chuckles. “I really am happy for you, Javi. Glad it all turned out well, all things considered.” 

Javi shrugs, even though he knows Steve can’t see it. “Work is work,” he says. 

Steve hums. “I think we should get on the soulbond registry, when I’m done here.” 

That does surprise Javi. He’d thought Steve would want to go to Cali with him. Putting themselves on the registry means they won’t be able to work together anymore. Even though Steve’s side of the bond must feel as faint as Javi’s does, they know each other well enough that Steve continues, spurred on by Javi's silence, “I just thought –” Steve says, “I’d go with you, but not as your work partner.”

Oh.

Javi, thankfully, manages to actually speak, instead of uttering like a surprised idiot, “Well,” Javi says, “You better go to Texas after, then.”

“I will,” Steve says.

There’s no rush, after all. There’ll be time.


End file.
